Anyone still here - Duval County?

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SharonA
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Anyone still here - Duval County?

Post by SharonA »

Is anyone still around here, fishing in Duval County? Got any suggestions for spots a middle-aged solo female can fish safely in the evenings and nights?

I'm more used to freshwater panfishing/catfishing than saltwater but wouldn't mind learning something new.

My gear is basic cheap stuff, a couple of light rods with low-end Zebco reels, and a bigger one that's caught many a catfish when I had a client in Alabama who used to love going for the big blues in the Tennessee River dam tailraces. I have the non-resident fresh & saltwater licenses; didn't get any of the add-ons like snook and tarpon. I have cast net and bait-catching stuff but need to brush up on my ID (and check for cast net size limits here).

So, where are you fishing here?

Unless the weather stinks I am GETTING OUT OF THE HOTEL tomorrow and wetting a line.

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Moose
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Re: Anyone still here - Duval County?

Post by Moose »

i know nothing about fishing in jacksonville....but if you search here long enough im sure someone has posted information somewhere....there is more than likely spots along the ICW and jetties over there and a fishing pier....grab some live shrimp or a sabiki to catch bait and give it a shot

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opiato
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Re: Anyone still here - Duval County?

Post by opiato »

Get some sand flea fishbites and/or live sand fleas if you can find em and fish the beach on an incoming tide. Get your line out as far as possible. Sunrise is best
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Green Tide
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Re: Anyone still here - Duval County?

Post by Green Tide »

Well Sharon the safest place would be the pier just down from beach blvd. Most fish are gonna be migratory other than the whiting and other surf runners. So if you try stay between the first 2 sets of breakers with some fresh shrimp. You can get fresh shrimp at the b&t on the northeast side of the icw on beach blvd.
The other place that comes to mind is the northeast side of the icw on Atlantic blvd. Because of the new bridge you have to turn on the little road just after the radio antenna building when coming from the east. If you miss the road you have to go across the bridge and turn around. That is about a 4 mile u turn. :mad: When you first get there it may look iffy, but all I ever see down there is other people fishing. Try the grass on the left where it hits the drop off.
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Wolfy-hound
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Re: Anyone still here - Duval County?

Post by Wolfy-hound »

I haven't been up into the Jax area itself, but the St Aug piers have been quite nice when I've gone. I prefer the Daytona Sunglow Pier, but that's quite a bit further south.

Finding safe good boatless fishing has been frustrating for me too. We should plan a fishing trip sometime.

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SharonA
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Re: Anyone still here - Duval County?

Post by SharonA »

Wolfy-hound wrote:I haven't been up into the Jax area itself, but the St Aug piers have been quite nice when I've gone. I prefer the Daytona Sunglow Pier, but that's quite a bit further south.

Finding safe good boatless fishing has been frustrating for me too. We should plan a fishing trip sometime.
Thanks for the St Aug info. And a trip works for me. Not sure what my timing is, but I'm certainly up for it if you're up to dealing with someone who has no real clue with anything other than bream. If I stay over some weekend I really want to try to hitch up with others sometime (no that's not a veiled request for hotspots).

Right now I have a small cooler containing a pint of fiddler crabs, which are scrabbling around and trying to climb up the sides. A friend who held the cooler for me yesterday said the skittering reminded her of a horror movie soundtrack as the horde of chittering creatures try to claw their way to the victims. eatpop

*I* found it to be a sort of soothing white noise last night while trying to sleep (once the fireworks stopped popping off! Seems like everyone in this hotel had bought some to set off in the lot across the street!)

anyhow ... Other than a haphazard pier session, I have been too busy or tired to fish. That pier session had a few bites and one BIG cat that didn't fight at all but rather felt like pulling in a snagged log, and then exploded into action when the net was slipped under him, and ah well we didn't land him.

Tomorrow is drive home day! Today is "the hotel room looks like an explosion in a storage unit" day as I get months of temporary living+office stuff organized and reboxed and ready to haul back home. Then back on the 12th for another 1-5 weeks onsite.
agonzalez0 wrote:i know nothing about fishing in jacksonville....but if you search here long enough im sure someone has posted information somewhere....there is more than likely spots along the ICW and jetties over there and a fishing pier....grab some live shrimp or a sabiki to catch bait and give it a shot
Thanks. I did a bunch of poking around on this site and saved off some notes and bookmarks. It looks like someone local gets on every few months, makes a couple of query posts, then goes away because no other current posters are local. I'm only a passer-through and will not be around for more than half-time and only a few months at that. It'll take a longer-time steady visitor to keep the participation going.
opiato wrote:Get some sand flea fishbites and/or live sand fleas if you can find em and fish the beach on an incoming tide. Get your line out as far as possible. Sunrise is best
How are the sand fleas for dock fishing? Unfortunately sunrise won't be do-able given the work schedule, but I'll remember that if I'm here over a weekend again. Thanks!
Green Tide wrote: The other place that comes to mind is the northeast side of the icw on Atlantic blvd. Because of the new bridge you have to turn on the little road just after the radio antenna building when coming from the east. If you miss the road you have to go across the bridge and turn around. That is about a 4 mile u turn. :mad: When you first get there it may look iffy, but all I ever see down there is other people fishing. Try the grass on the left where it hits the drop off.
Thanks. I may try to hit that this afternoon, or at least drive by and take a look. By new bridge what do you mean - the Dames Point? Last time I was in Jax for an extended period, the Dames Point Bridge was still a huge political football with the port screaming about shipping hazards and the environmentalists screaming about the loss and pollution. I keep finding myself planning routes the old way - through downtown or Mayport - forgetting that Oh yeah, they finally built That Bridge.

Time to quit this amateur stalling. If I'm going to stall out on the packing, might as well do it by fishing and not by surfing the internet :)

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SharonA
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Re: Anyone still here - Duval County?

Post by SharonA »

Duh. Should have checked a map before posting ... think I figured out the "new bridge" and ICW and stuff now.

Thanks for the pointer.

Mds169
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Re: Anyone still here - Duval County?

Post by Mds169 »

imma still fishing in jax. mainly on the northside off of hecksher and the downtown area generally late evening to around midnight.
It's not the speed or fury of the wind that determines a mans destiny...but the set if his sails. 

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SharonA
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Re: Anyone still here - Duval County?

Post by SharonA »

Cool - any luck? I drove along that road a few weeks ago and it looked like it had all sorts of interesting pullouts and fishing opportunities. Not sure how safe those are in the evening for a single female (and not that I've had evenings free to fish).

(I had to do some laptop re-configuration and then forgot the password here... anyhow, back now)

This weekend was to be a stay-over-in-Jax-and-work weekend, but that fell through at the last minute. The flight home was already rescheduled, so I'm just going to call this a find-something-to-do weekend.

It FIGURES that the one weekend I am completely free until Monday morning, 90% of my fishing gear is at home and not with me, and the weather is lousy. This would have been a great chance to just check out fishing holes and chill out.,

My plan is to drive south from Jax until I'm out of the weekend rain, then I dunno. I have one pole and some basic gear with me, the panfish-sized stuff for dockfishing with kids. But between fishing forums and saxophone forums, I'll find something to do and stay out of trouble :jester:

(the glamorous life of a freelance consultant!!)

BigFishFun
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Re: Anyone still here - Duval County?

Post by BigFishFun »

Im not on any hot bites right now, but ive found the majority of my fish whiting off the beach a few blocks north of the pier in clean water and game fish up along heckshire with live shrimp and mud minnows at the base of the pilings.

cvstrat
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Re: Anyone still here - Duval County?

Post by cvstrat »

I was up in St Simons Island, GA last week. Fishing was horrible so I drove to the St Augustine for a few days to scope it out. I ended the bridge at the inlet of Amelia Island State Park and also drove down to the St Johns Pier in St Augustine one day.

The only thing moving were dink whiting. Basically just throw out a piece of frozen shrimp with a size 1 hook and a 1-3oz weight depending on the water movement. The occasional undersized trout would come up too. The pier was tiny so I didn't bother fishing but nobody was catching anyway.

There are sheepshead to be found though if you look, especially in back in the rivers where the tides bring the ocean water in and out. From what I could gather they are preparing to spawn so the big ones should be around. Try from low tide for the next few hours. They'll be around bridge or dock piling or the seawall. If you can scrape barnacles off the pilings that will get them fired up. You can use clams, mussels, fiddler crabs, or small pieces of shrimp.

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Green Tide
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Re: Anyone still here - Duval County?

Post by Green Tide »

I was just in Duval county for a few days the Sheephead fishing is supposed to be on fire there right now. if you can get one of the local fishing papers they'll give you several locations to try.
I didn't get to fish so can't give a report.
The weather supposed to be in the low 20s tonight. Glad to be back home and in short pants.
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SneakyWaff1es
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Re: Anyone still here - Duval County?

Post by SneakyWaff1es »

Has it picked up at all at the pier or maybe some of the creeks? I'll be in the area over the weekend and I'm looking for some sheepshead, trout or reds...

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SharonA
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Re: Anyone still here - Duval County?

Post by SharonA »

Dunno, I haven't been able to get out for several weeks. Work scheduling and evenings booked and stuff. I sort of need a keeper to boot me off my butt and schedule, otherwise I get engrossed in a neat problem or go to the gym and bye-bye free evening.

All the gear is sitting in a closet :(

Were you able to get anything? Where'd you go?

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